Working Meeting on Government’s EU Action Plan Held in Parliament

On January 29, a working meeting between the representatives of the ruling party, the opposition and civil society on the Government’s action plan of measures to implement the European Commission’s nine conditions was held in the Georgian Parliament . The meeting was chaired by the Speaker of the Parliament, Shalva Papuashvili and the Chairman of the Georgian Dream party, Irakli Kobakhidze.

Ahead of the meeting, Shalva Papuashvili said that the agenda includes all the issues arising from the nine priorities, “with a special focus on the issues within the competence of the Parliament.”

The opposition party “Lelo” boycotted the meeting. Ana Natsvlishvili of Lelo said the party will present its own action plan tomorrow, adding: “Now is not the time for half-measures, sham trials and commissions, now is the time for quick, decisive action.”

The representative of the main opposition party UNM, Davit Kirkitadze, announced before the meeting that the party also plans to announce its own action plan, on which the civil society organizations have already been consulted.

Opposition comments after the meeting

Paata Manjgaladze, the representative of the “Reform Group”, in his comments after the meeting stated that “the representatives of Georgian Dream share the recommendations, notes and conditions of Europe at the level of speech and recognition. I don’t expect Georgian Dream to change the morals and start the process of de-oligarchization, electoral and judicial reform”. According to Manjgaladze, by participating in the meeting, the opposition has put an end to the ruling party’s “radical opposition” rhetoric and forced it to talk about and focus on reforms.

Mikheil Daushvili, the representative of the political group “For Georgia”, stated: “From what we heard at today’s meeting, Georgian Dream does not intend to implement substantive and structural reforms on such important issues as the electoral issue, the judiciary and anti-corruption reform.”

Roman Gotsiridze, the representative of the political group “Euro-optimists”, stated: “There are priorities that will never be fulfilled, which concern the reduction of levers related to the maintenance of power. There are priorities that will be partially fulfilled. There are also priorities that will be fulfilled because the EU itself has set low standards for them… In general, the essential and vital priorities, such as electoral reform, such as judicial reform, etc., these recommendations will of course not be implemented until this government is in place”.

Davit Kirkitadze, the representative of UNM, stated: “[The Georgian Dream] will try to oppose the [reforms] process in every possible way. The ultimate goal and task is to prevent them from doing so. At the end of the day, we should not give them the opportunity to say that any process, which in the end will be for the good of the Georgian people, was hindered by the opposition or by our non-participation. We are participating in this process, we will try to force the authorities to take these steps, and of course, if they don’t, we will come out and tell the public clearly and definitely”.

Teona Akubardia, the representative of the “Reform Group”, stated after the meeting: “It was mainly about the format, including specific visions and mood indicators. But if I were to tell you that this left me with any great expectations, that there will be any fundamental changes, that is not the case.” She also noted that the working groups will continue to meet on more specific issues.

Some of the most influential CSOs, including TI-Georgia, GYLA and ISFED, did not attend the meeting. According to Shalva Papuashvili, CSOs were invited to the meeting through the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Platform, which TI-Georgia, GYLA and ISFED had left. Papuashvili noted that these organizations had sent letters asking to attend the meeting individually, but they were refused and told that if they wanted to participate, they should do so through the platform.

After the meeting, Nino Chkhobadze, representative of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Platform, noted that civil society can’t be represented by the Platform alone. She called for more involvement of civil society organizations in the process of reform implementation and more participation at the level of transparent working groups.

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